The Unexpected Task
by Wolf in the Mist
Summary: Albus Dumbledore has sent Harry Potter to America for the year. What is he going to do now that he is no longer going to a magaical school?
1. The Bad News

Harry Potter was not happy.

Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Order of Merlin, First Class, and Head of the Wizengamot, had just sent Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, a letter. Not just _any_ letter, mind you. This letter informed the 15 year-old that he would be moving to the states for the year. "For safety precautions" is what it had said.

'For safety precautions, my arse,' Harry thought, and promptly crumpled the letter up, and threw it into the garbage. After reading it, of course.

It had also stated that the Dursleys would be going with him.

When Harry read this part, he laughed out loud. How Dumbledore got the Dursleys to agree with this, he wasn't sure, and he really didn't want to know.

Harry was still rather sore at Dumbledore for not telling him . . . Well. . . Everything, really. What right did he have for doing that, anyway? Had he told him, instead of 'trying to protect him', he wouldn't have-

No. He _was not_ going to think about that.

But it wasn't as if Harry didn't know what the letter was going to say anyway. 'You'll have fun!' 'I'm sorry about what happened.' 'You will make new friends.' 'No, you cannot stay.'

Yadda, yadda, ya.

At the present moment, Harry could care less what the old coot had to say. He really did not want to go to the States. Dumbledore said he would be going to a Muggle school. How Harry was going to be getting his training, he didn't say. All he knew at this point, is he would be leaving Thursday morning—it was now Saturday—at precisely 6:00 A.M.

Why Dumbledore had to send him to such a country, at such an ungodly hour, he wasn't entirely sure.

But, bloody hell, did it piss him off.

Harry silently picked up all his things, threw them in his trunk, all the while, cursing Dumbledore to hell as he did so. After he was packed, he turned off the lights, crawled under his covers in Dudley's old bed, put his glasses on the nightstand, and went to sleep.

* * *

When the Dursleys awoke on Saturday morning, with all their things packed, they were not happy, to say the least. Even though they thought Vernon's boss had relocated them to the States, not Dumbledore—although Dumbledore had ties with Vernon's boss, not that Vernon knew—they were still not happy that Harry had to come with. 

'Figures though, don't it?' Harry asked himself, as he realized how Dumbledore got the Dursleys to move, 'The manipulative bastard can't even leave Vernon's boss alone, he has to have eyes on me at _all_ times.'

When Harry had come down the stairs with his belongings, the Dursleys had already been waiting for him. Uncle Vernon was a rather violent shade of purple, though he didn't say anything. After shooting Harry a 'Death Glare', he addressed the house at large and said, "We'd better get going, don't want to miss our flight."

Harry had a feeling that this was going to be a rather long rest-of-the-summer, even though there was less thana monthto go.

* * *

The plane ride went quicker than Harry had expected. He was dreadfully tired, even though he had slept through almost the entire thing. Which, Harry thought was utterly ridiculous. How could anybody be so tired after almost fourteen hours of continuous sleep? 

He already missed his friends. Dumbledore didn't let him tell his friends where he was going. That infuriated him more than anything. The man had the nerve to take him away from everything he had ever known, his friends, his school. . . Okay, so there wasn't really much to take away from him anymore, but it was still the initiative! Besides, the way Harry looked at it; he wouldn't do too much better here than he had been before he started Hogwarts. The only good quality clothes he owned was the Hogwarts school uniform and you certainly couldn't wear that to a Muggle school. The Americans would be brutal to him in Dudley's old hand-me-downs, and he certainly didn't have enough Muggle money to buy new ones, the Dursleys unquestionably weren't going to let him keep them even if he did. If they knew how much money he had, he'd be paying rent, bills, and buying all the groceries. No, Harry would have to make do with what he had. Unless--

'Maybe if I told them Ron and Hermione sent them. . .' Harry thought, 'Just maybe, I might be able to keep them.'

But how to get the money to _buy_ the clothes without the Dursleys knowing that it was actually _his_ money--

Harry decided he'd figure that out later. Right now, he had to greet his new home.

Newmanstown, Pennsylvania, United States of America.


	2. A New School

A/N: Hey, guys. I realize, it's been a _long_ while. I am truly, truly sorry. I'd been going through some hard things in life at the time (and still kinda am), and I really couldn't find it in me to feel up to doing much of anything, let alone write. Things are looking better now, though, and I've worked some of that stuff out, so I'll probably start updating more often. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I hope my tone and style hasn't changed so much since I began this story (I've had AP English, so it might have...). Here you are!

--

Harry looked around warily. He was standing in the middle of a hallway, very unsure of himself. The Dursleys had just dropped him off at his new school. He had thought this peculiar at first, until Vernon had grumpily explained to him the reason he was driving him to school was because it was his first day, he wasn't properly in the system, and a bus route had not been assigned to him as of yet.

"But as soon as one is, you can bet your arse you'll be taking the bus every damned day!" Vernon had screamed at him as he exited the car. This was fine with Harry. The less time he was forced to spend in Vernon's (or any of the Dursley's, really) company, the happier he was.

However, right now, Harry was _not_ happy. He was in a foreign environment, in a foreign school, in a foreign country, and he had _no idea_ what he was supposed to be doing. The last time he was in a Muggle school system, he was 10 years old. Now, at fifteen, he was so unaccustomed to the procedures of a non-magical school, he had no idea where to begin. It also didn't help that every student in the building was roaming the halls, making their way to their classes, and shouting over the roar of the crowd to their friends. He was confused, disoriented, and quite lost indeed.

Suddenly, he was jarred into by another, and larger, student who ran past him towards the end of the hallway. Three other students followed the largest one's lead, also running into him. While they were unaffected because of their large sizes, Harry was thrown to the edge of the hallway by their force, and ended up sprawled on the floor.

"Watch where you're going, you big useless bags of skin!" Harry looked up at the sudden screaming voice above him. He spotted a pale girl, with strawberry hair. He was vaguely reminded of Ginny Weasley. The girl turned to him and asked, "Are you alright?"

Still disoriented, he stared for a moment before replying, "Er, I think so?" He was confused. There was still movement in the hall, and while it was slowing down, it still disoriented him. He expressed as much.

"Disoriented? Well, here, come on, let's get you into the office. I bet you're the guy the guidance office sent me down for," she said, grabbing his arm and hoisting him up off the floor. "I'm Selena, by the way. Anyway, it's no wonder you're disoriented, I'd be disoriented too, if I weren't already accustomed to all the nonsense that goes on around here. Actually, I still do get disoriented sometimes, although not in the way you're disoriented, it's more of a horrible disgust at the way things go around here, but anyway, yeah. I'm supposed to take you to the guidance office to get you all set up and what not." The girl, Selena, said this all in one breath, further increasing Harry's confusion.

Not knowing what else to say, he put out a simple, "Er, sure."

Selena laughed. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm always like this. Just kind of scatter-brained. Usually whatever I'm thinking comes out in all one stream of consciousness. I don't really have a filter on my brain, especially when I'm really busy, like now." Harry just stared. Selena stopped for a moment, seeming to have lost her train of thought. After a moment, she exclaimed, "Oh! Right, come on, then. It's going to be very unpleasant for you." She laughed, grabbed his arm, and drug him down the left wing of the hallway. Harry felt like it was his first time in Diagon Alley all over again, only this place was less impressive. They passed an office with glass windows, which Selena informed him was the main office. "The only reason you'd ever need to go there is if you're in trouble, or your parents dropped something off for you. If you ever need something, and are directed to the office, it's generally understood to mean the guidance office. That's where we're going," Selena informed him.

She drug Harry down the hallway for another minute or two, and then stopped outside a very plain looking door. Turning to Harry, she said, "Well, this is it. I know the door's kind of plain and boring, and easy to miss, but try not to forget what it looks like. You, especially, will spend a lot of time here. We had another transfer student, Yely, she was from Venezuela, and she was always being called down here for one thing or another. Although, that might have been because she didn't speak much English when she first got here...." She trailed off for a moment. Catching herself, she continued, "Anyway, let's go in here and get you set up, and I'll get you to class then. I have business in here anyway." With that, she pushed open the door and went inside.

"Ah, Selena!" said a woman behind a rather large desk. It almost appeared as if the woman were sitting in a small hole behind the desk, it was so large. "I was wondering what was taking you so long! We need to move this along. Lots to do today."

"Right, right. There was a stampede in the hallway this morning. I think Mr. Faire had the choir in there for some sort of rehearsal this morning. It was nuts! Anyway, I brought, uh... the new guy with me here. I didn't catch his name," she said with a chuckle.

"Harry," Harry interjected.

"Yes, of course," answered the woman behind the desk. "I'm Mrs. Kare. Anyway, we have these papers you need to fill out. Your relatives had already filled out most of them, but they were unable to answer some of the questions. We just need you to fill out the rest. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes."

"Alright," Harry answered, and grabbed the forms she handed him. He sat at the table next to her desk, in the larger part of the room, while the girl, Selena talked with Mrs. Kare about something or other. He glanced through the packet, filled out what was left blank by the Dursleys (mostly things about his old school, like addresses and phone numbers, which he quickly made up. They had given up the St. Brutus's charade after the letter about Sirius), and handed them back to the woman.

"Thanks a bunch, Harry!" Mrs. Kare said, smiling. "So now you just need your schedule, though it should be nearly the same as Selena's. I think the only difference is that you have some fitness credit, where she has an extra math class. Just a moment," she said, as she rifled through an appallingly messy desk drawer. After a few minutes of rummaging, Mrs. Kare yanked out a sheet of paper with a few wrinkles, and screamed, "Ah, HA!" The other guidance counselors stuck their heads out of their offices at the sudden outburst. Mrs. Kare handed Harry the crinkled paper, and the other people disappeared back into their respective offices as she explained how the schedule was set up.

"The only thing you really need to know is that you will go to these same classes every day, in this order. A bell will ring when it's time to move on to the next class. Classes here are eighty minutes long, so you'll have just four classes a day, and a forty minute lunch. Selena will show you to your classes today, but if you should happen to forget where your class is, the room number is right next to the class title. Classes in the one-hundreds are on the first floor, and classes in the two-hundreds are on the second floor. As of right now, you two are off to Mr. Becker's calculus class, so I'll let you go now. If you need anything, just ask Selena, or stop down here, ok?"

"Alright," Harry agreed. "Thanks."

"No problem, dear. Now, you best get going," she added.

"Alright, let's go, Harry," Selena said, and grabbed his arm. "See ya, Mrs. Kare," she added, as she drug Harry off to calculus.

–

Harry paced his new room. He was confused. Calculus? Chemistry? French? Self-Defense? These are the classes Dumbledore had approved him to take? He assumed Dumbledore did, anyway. Why else would he be in these classes? But calculus? Really? The last time he had taken a math class was before he discovered he was a wizard, and he still lived in the cupboard under the stairs. The most he knew was multiplication and fractions. He couldn't do calculus! And Chemistry? While it is a great deal like Potions, only minus the magic, he still was confused, as that also required previous knowledge about math. And what on _earth_ was he taking French for, of all things? When would he ever get the chance to go to France? Or any other French-speaking country? Unless, of course, he was going their to hide from Voldemort, but even then he wouldn't need to know the language, as he definitely wouldn't be talking to anyone. The only class he could see worth taking was this Self-Defense class.

_Finally_, he thought,_ Dumbledore's on to something._

He needed to do something. There was no way he could continue on this way, with Calculus and Chemistry and French in his schedule. He needed remedial classes, or tutoring, or something, he didn't really know what. He figured that while he thought of something to do, someone to contact, he would unpack his belongings. He assumed he would be living here a good while, especially if Dumbledore registered him for these completely insane classes.

His new room was larger than his old room. While the width of the room was the same, the length was doubled, so now his room was rectangular. This struck him as odd, but he brushed it aside. It didn't really matter, anyway. He also found it peculiar that the walls were mint green. _Must have been a girl's room, before,_ he thought. Along one wall were two brown dressers. He only needed one to store all of his clothing, winter and summer combined. Along the other wall opposite the dressers were a desk, chair, and bed, all in the same color as the dressers. He put his backpack and Hedwig's cage on top of the desk, hung his jacket on the back of the chair, shoved his Hogwarts things under the bed, and sat down on his bed. Unpacking took all of seven minutes.

_Now what to do about this ridiculous situation I'm in_, he thought. _Dumbledore definitely won't do anything for me. None of the teachers would dare cross Dumbledore either, so that's out. Hagrid won't be able to help me, especially with his problem of keeping secrets. I can't have Ron and Hermione help me, they'll ask too many questions, and they're not supposed to know where I am. Maybe I should owl Fred and George. I could trust them to get my gold out of my account and get me some decent clothing for school without too much fuss. They won't ask questions like Ron and Hermione would, and I can definitely trust those two to do whatever I say, considering the mound of gold I gave them last summer. This just might work..._

Just then, Harry's thoughts were disturbed with Aunt Petunia's shriek of, "Potter! Get down here and help make dinner!" Making a mental note to write Fred and George a letter, Harry got up, groaning, and went downstairs to make dinner, for her knew that when Aunt Petunia said 'help', she really meant 'do'.

_Hopefully dinner goes relatively smoothly, _thought Harry. _It's been too tiring of a day to have to deal with the Dursleys._


	3. The Letters

A/N: Heyyy, guys. I know, a speedy update! Also, I am aware this chapter is pretty boring. Things will start getting important and interesting in the next chapter, I promise! Anyway, R&R, and enjoy this chapter! :D

Dinner went as smooth as it could with the Dursleys. Harry was left to his devices for a half an hour while he prepared the meal. The Dursleys sat in the family room, discussing Vernon's new job. Apparently his company, Grunnings, was expanding, and they sent Vernon to the new company in the States as a reward for all of his hard work. Harry almost laughed outright. Vernon's company obviously didn't know him as well as they should.

After dinner was ready, Aunt Petunia allowed Harry a small plate of food, which she handed him to take up to his room. "There's no room at the table for you," she snapped. "And I'm not making any, either. Get upstairs, and bring that plate down with you when you're done."

Harry, sensing his good fortune, despite his aunt's temper, rushed upstairs, and quickly ate his food, sharing some with a sad looking Hedwig. "I'll let you out later tonight," he promised. "I have a job for you anyway." The owl just cocked her head to the side in interest.

Suddenly, there was a screech from downstairs, followed by the noise of the dining room chairs being pushed back, and Vernon's voice screaming, "POTTER! Get down here this instant!"

Harry groaned. What could possibly be the problem now? Harry grabbed his plate, and hurried downstairs.

"Potter!" his aunt screeched at him, when she spotted him depositing his plate into the sink. "Can't we go _anywhere_ without those _bloody owls_ following us? I don't care what it wants, get rid of it this instant!"

Harry ignored his aunt's screeching and lazily grabbed the owl of of the air. It was flying circles around the dining room table because of Petunia's screeching. He quickly untied the letter from its leg, and shoved it out the window behind the table.

"Get. Upstairs. _NOW!_" his uncle roared. "And don't you dare come down the rest of the night! We've had enough of your silly nonsense for one day!"

Harry quite agreed. This day went progressively from awkward, to bad, to worse, and he had had quite enough of strange and unusual (even for him) things happening. Ignoring the commotion the Dursleys were still making over the owl (who hadn't done anything but fly around the room, scared out of its mind), he walked quietly upstairs. He desperately wanted to read this letter. Hopefully it contained some sort of clue to what madness was going on inside of Dumbledore's head.

The closer he got to his room, he noticed he could hear strange noises from behind his door. Becoming worried, he sprinted up the rest of the stairs and burst into his room, only to find another, incredibly small owl buzzing around Hedwig's cage. Hedwig was going crazy, trying to snap at the owl through the bars of her cage. The other owl slowed down for a moment, and Harry realized that it was Pig.

"Pig!" Harry hissed. "Get over here! Stop harrassing Hedwig!" He ran over and, utilizing his Seeker skills, snatched Pig right out of the air. There was a rather large envelope tied to the owl's leg, which must have been the cause of Pig's micheiviousness. Harry took the envelope, and let go of Pig, glaring at him. "You leave Hedwig alone," he snapped. "And keep quiet!" In order to ensure that his orders were followed, he opened Hedwig's cage, let her out, grabbed her food and water bowl, and filled them so both of the owls would be occupied while he read his letters.

He sat down on his bed. He thought he'd get the first letter he got out of the way, as it was likely from Professor Dumbledore. Opening it up, he read:

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_I do hope you've settled in wonderfully into your new house and school. I am sure you must have questions you want to ask me, unfortunately, you may not send letters back to me or anyone else with Hedwig, or any other owl. An owl flying that distance will be sure to draw attention. For your convenience, then, I've asked Professor Snape to teach at the high school you will be attending. Professor Snape will give you further instrucions tomorrow._

_Good luck!_

_Professor Dumbledore_

Harry just stared at the letter. He was outraged. Professor Snape? Really? Dumbledore couldn't send him _any other teacher_ at _all?_ Surely Dumbledore has started to lose his mind. And the lack of information! Dumbledore really expects Snape to divulge any information to Harry? Perposterous! Before Harry went crazy at Dumbledore's stupidity, he decided he would read his other letter. Or letters. He wasn't sure which.

He grabbed the envelope that Pig brought him. Inside he found two different letters. He wasn't surprised. He opened one and read:

_Dear Harry,_

_How are you, mate? Dumbledore told us he sent you away for the year! He said we could send one owl, but after this, we're not allowed to send you anymore, and we're not allowed to have any sort of communication with you until you come back. I can't believe it! Mum said he's gone completely stark raving mad, but Dad's with Dumbledore on this, so we really won't be allowed any more letters. Hermione says she's going to ask somebody if she can send you books and things, so you won't miss out on this year of school (big surprise). Hopefully she isn't allowed! Anyway, Harry, I hope you're allowed to come for holidays. Dumbledore said it's a maybe, so I'll keep nagging him, and hopefully he'll give in!_

_Hope to see you for Christmas, mate,_

_Ron_

_Well, _Harry thought. _If that wasn't a depressing letter. No big surprise, though._

Harry decided he'd worry about it later. He opened the second letter in the envelope and read:

_Hey, Harry!_

_Dumbledore's just told us the news. A real shame. Gryffindor definitely won't be winning any Quidditch games this year, especially with the Slytherin team's brooms from Draco's father. It's lucky Wood's graduated, otherwise we'd hear it all season long about you. Anyway, we thought we'd do you a favor, and ignore Dumbledore's orders. We bet there's all sorts of things he didn't allow you to have, so just send a letter back with Pig, and we'll be sure to get whatever you need to you!_

_Gred and Forge_

_P.S. We're going to send you some new items we've made, since you won't get to see them on the train to school!_

_Oh, no!_ Harry thought. _I really don't want that stuff. Maybe I'll just suggest they send me pictures of the products in action._

Harry decided he would write a letter to Fred and George, and then plan how to get along with Professor Snape the rest of the year. He asked the twins to please send him some new, Muggle school clothes, along with his sizes. He mentioned asking Hermione for help, and in return, let her send him his school work whenever they send him things. Ron would have a fit if he knew, but he needed to stay caught up with his magical schooling, too. He mentioned that where he was, he wasn't allowed to use magic, and so, if they wanted to enlighten him about their new products, they should do so by pictures of the results. He folded up the letter, grabbed an envelope, stuck his Gringotts vault key within, and tied it to Pig's leg.

"Pig," Harry instructed. "Take this straight to Fred and George. Don't let anyone else have this letter, you hear?" Pig squeaked at him, which he decided would have to be a good enough reply. He went over to his window, and through Pig out into the night air.

"Sorry, Hedwig," he said once he could no longer see Pig from his window. "You can go out now if you want."

Hedwig fluttered over and landed on his shoulder. Harry gave her a pat. "Go on," he said. After nipping him on the ear, Hedwig flew out of the window and into the night.

Alone, Harry began to gather his things for school tomorrow. He didn't want to think about what Dumbledore had told him in his letter, for he would have to face that soon enough. He was going to enjoy the last hours of peace before he had to see Professor Snape. He could only imagine what it would look like to everyone else to see Professor Snape in Chemistry class tomorrow. Remembering his first Potions class, he felt sorry for the other students in his class. Nobody deserved to have Snape as a teacher, in _any_ subject.

It was only nine o'clock, but Harry was worn out after school and the letters. He decided he was going to go to bed early, considering he would have to get up at six the next morning, and he would be seeing Professor Snape as well. Seeing Snape required all the patience he had, and if he didn't go to bed now, he'd be up all night, and tomorrow, he'd be cranky, which wouldn't go over well when he interacted with Snape. Harry turned off the lights, crawled under the covers, and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a long day.


End file.
